This wasn’t a Christmas present per se (I got her late November), but I consider her a Christmas/birthday/St. Patrick’s Day/Groundhog’s Day present for the next 5 years.
I upgraded my music computer to respectable specs – what I had was showing its age. The new rig doesn’t set the world ablaze, but works well.
ASUS P5N-D Motherboard
Intel Pentium Dual-Core 2.93GHz 1066MHz 2MB LGA775 Processor BX80571E6500
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply
PNY Optima MD4096KD2-800 4GB 2x2GB Dual Channel Kit DDR2 800 MHz CL 5-5-5-15 PC2-6400 Desktop DIMM Memory Module
I picked up Cubase 5 a little bit ago, and am looking forward to picking up some projects soon. I put everything on hold while completing the doctorate (I’ll be finished in May… knock on wood).
I haven’t checked them out yet. I just wanted to let you know that it’s totally cool for you to post links like this. I’ll read your blog soon.
I only get concerned about links when they go to content that isn’t family friendly. Also, and this is kind of unspoken, I’ve seen some threads/ links get removed over political and religious content so avoid those. The ultimate goal is to keep a relaxing/ cool/ welcoming vibe on the forum. Aside from that, feel free to share funny, cool or interesting links.
Well, a sound card won’t improve or degrade the sound quality of the source material for your plugins. At that point in the signal path (post sample production), the only thing that can be improved is the quality of the monitoring of those samples if the discussion doesn’t include adding effects (reverb, etc.) or manipulation of the sample (envelope shaping, EQ, etc.).
The variables, then, are choice of host sequencer, AD/DA and monitoring system. The particular sound of host sequencers has been debated as angrily as the Mac vs. PC war. My opinion, if it matters, is that they all sound pretty darn good if the source material is pretty darn good.
“AD/DA” represents the acronym for “Analog – to – Digital and Digital – to – Analog” conversion. At this point, you can spend as much money as you want or are capable of. The Presonus Firestudio is a great choice for the pro-sumer. There are better converters out there, but (like the host sequencer debate) the differences at the very top get quite subtle and require great monitors to detect the finer nuances.
That’s a nice segue to discuss monitoring. Upgrading monitoring, in my opinion (if it matters), is probably the easiest way to improve your mixes because of the amount of detail that is able to be heard due to improved clarity (a good listening environment is also desirable). Take a CD that you know like the back of your hand to your local music store and ask them to play it through a variety of monitoring speakers. Then, choose the pair in your price range that you think best represent how that record should sound. If they don’t sound good at your house, return them for a pair that do sound good.
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